Planes, Trains and Plastering Trowels

Today I have mostly been plastering...

This was the opening for the old gas boiler, it was an open hole in the wall, so I had to build a timber frame into the brick work, plaster board that and then skim over it.

It's been a success, though I do have to wet & dry sand the top and sides a little to smooth them in, however, when the whole wall gets a coat of paint, and the new electric fire is hung back over the hole you'll never know.

Ken's train set is also coming along more, as you can see here, he's ballasted and started to decorate the station, there's lighting and tree's.

We've got an Arduino Uno powered dynamic lighting effect set, awaiting delivery of some ultra bright LED's.  And of course the arduino powered detection/occupancy system is still awaiting delivery of the magnets and reed switches.

Finally, I've been broadcasting my WarThunder game-play to Twitch again...

Come join me there for game play, programming, soldering projects and other bric-a-brac.

http://www.twitch.tv/xelous

Manlab White Out

It has been a long and arduous weekend, first of all.... The MAN LAB IS DONE.

It's all plastered through, invarying levels of quality, until the very last walls is perfect, and I mean that, it's a brilliant flat, smooth lovely wall.... The first wall I did is appauling, the last, well I think I could sell myself as a plasterer of walls with that last wall...

I've also painted it all, after applying watered-down-PVA to seal the plaster, I've put on three coats on all the walls and four coats of matt brilliant white emulsion.  It's very much like a mental ward, or a dream... You could easily re-film the scene with Harry and Dumbledore at Kings Cross station in there....

Though the room might actually be more white than it's possible for a convensional camera to pick up.

The room needs a new carpet next, and a better light fitting, and then the electrical outlets and switches are going to be swapped for brushed chrome, but... None of that can happen for at least a month, so for now the room is done.

I'm going to put the power extensions back around to my work area, set up my desk and get on with living in the room.

A trip to Ikea maybe on the bill too, for some new wardrobe space.

Oh, but I did fall off the ladder once, the thing just folded up on me, and I fell down and bounced off the header of my bed... which is iron bars... I bent one of the bars something furious, and my left hip is utterly shot today, but hey ho.

Good Plastering Progress

I come to you live, it really is half past midnight, the reason being I can't sleep... I'm extremely tired, bodily tired, but my brain is very very active.

So, lets round things up, first of all the plastering YES I got what I wanted doing and a little bit more done, I got in Friday and steamed four walls, chipped shitty old plaster off, I dug 1970's cavity clamps out of the wall, I fixed the chimney breast and applied PVA to the old plaster to control suction.

Saturday, I did the front wall, blending it in, and then both chimney cheeks, and spent ages blending the front wall.  Finally a second mix I did the facing side of the chimney breast and tidied up... Now I tore the plaster on the thin top here, the walls are strange, I need to apply less than 1mm of plaster above the old picture frame position and nearly 3.5mm below... This however means I need to polish and can polish the lower half quicker and better, but the upper area I pretty much have to leave alone as once it starts to dry I just tear it...

And I tore a good 6 inch gash in the chimney breast front... gah.

But anyway, Sunday two mixes and I got both of the side walls done... And the walls are good... The plastering is acceptably smooth....

However, my corners, especially the in ward directed ones are awful... I don't know why, I use a brush, I smooth them, I try my best, but they're just shit and with the handicap of not being able to work the very thin tops a lot they tops are worse.  And adding insult to injury there's the curved front roof...

Anyway, lots done... Gaming... Well the wife and I did finish GTV5 through one set of senarios, we've started again however, to play through a whole other way.

I really had wished I'd got something else played however.  So, there's another post with no nice pictures, no information, just me moaning about plastering... But, I really have to get this room done now.

Manlab & Minecraft

It has been a long time since I got any gaming in, least on the PC, been playing a lot of GTAV on the PS3... But I want to play some more PC stuff, however the room still needs work...

The front wall now has the built in wardrobes removed, so I've got to just re-finish the plaster along the front, I can see the chimney breast now, so I need to steam all the old wall paper off of that and prepare the surface for plastering.

But, I do hope with these little walls to do some plastering this weekend, indeed I hope to finish the front wall, and plaster both cheeks of the chimney breast from the same mix... and then do a second mix to do the front of the chimney breast and/or the ceilings.

I think tonight I'll get in and get on with the prep work - streaming & bonding the holes.

Once done I've got wire and I may go and wire some things in the loft.  The first thing I may sort out when I've wired the loft room is actually setting up a Minecraft server, I want a persistent world which I can work in and access from anywhere, I've until now been copying the world downloads around, however, that's now proving problematic as I've turned off and packed the main PC, which was the last place I used my world from.

However, I may re-start my last world from the seed and record my activity...

Also I've been looking at a new mob farm, Koala's seems cool and easy to build.

Grinding Halt

It was only a matter of time, but it seems my active push of late has finally led me to falling ill, yes I'm really run down, and the holiday season has let me relax enough to let a massively heavy chest attack me.  Nothing like as bad as the proper pneumonia I had earlier in the year, but enough to bring progress on all things house & decoration to a halt.

All I've managed game-wise is to extend my branch mining in Minecraft, and to gain access to the first real zero the A6M2 in WarThunder - yes by proper I mean the one without the fucking floats....

But I really need to get better now, I want, nay need, to finish the room here... I need the two big walls plastering and then the whole thing painting, and then I want to get down the carpet shop and pick out some new threads for me to plod about on...

And then I need to start the laminate flooring downstairs.

This later endeavour is already beset with problems, the foremost being, I don't have a power saw or jig to hold the planks and so it'll be wonky as wonky-McWonkerson.... I need to therefore invest in a mitre saw bench/clamp/something... And then I need to actually prepare the floors, the front room floor has a large bulge in it, near the doorway, which is not conducive to laying a flat laminate floor on top of... gah.

Man Lab - Plastering Planning to Finish the Alcove

I'm actually writing this on like the 18th, but there were lots of posts planned and scheduled, so you're getting it today - late as it were.

Tonight I'm going to try to get the left hand side done on the main wall, but I'm doing this in two steps because of my poor mixing so far... So, I'm going to get the skim bead up on the left of the main window - the blue squares...

Next I'm going to do one mix and try to get from the wall around the left most window, now I've already got skim bead around this window, and I've already done the inside of it... so its smooth, the wall above it however has that bulge mentioned before, so its going to be a shit.

 

Whilst that's having a moment to set I'm going to clean the bucket and get clean water... Then smooth the first left most skim out... and clean the wall corner up... And then its the second mix and I'm going to do the blank flat wall between the two windows.

 

Now this skim has to get to the radiator at the bottom, there's no gap at the top of the radiator below the sill, so that's as far as we can get along the bottom there, and then blend and taper off the skim at the top there...

Problems with this section is that the top left of the right hand (main) window has been rebuilt in bonding compound, so I need to scrape some of that away, also the whole area above the windows bulges.

But, once this skim is done the desk can go up.... And the plan is that it'll fit into the alcove I've already plastered... here's my MS Paint powered 3D rendering...

So the desk, and shelf want to go in like this:

The reason being... a) to get it done... b) the desk fixings can go up... c) the father-in-law coming xmas day can help cus the desk to size and fit the shelf.

Now, this whole plastering effort he's going to take the piss out of, but... hey I've seen the plastering done by someone else in our utility room... that's god awful plastering compared to mine, and the wife seems to like my efforts here.

Oh, I've also been trying to drop hints to people that I need a simple DIY skimming plastering course, there is one I'd go to in the local area, but it seems to be more of other details I don't need... like putting up dry lining board... and then another which seems exactly what I want is like 80 miles away... Both courses are expensive, over £180 for one and £225 the other... I'm in negotiation with the wife to go on one, but this room needs finishing before that, so... Wish me luck.

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Right, the plan above I wrote last night, and here I am in the morning after some success.  But not before an absolute disaster.

I started out with my first mix, and thought I was happy with it... I'd PVA'd the target area, I'd cleared up around the place... The mix was ready to pour and prepare, so I started... whisking with the drill... and yeah it was peaking, it was like a thick double cream... Oh hell... It was just too sloppy... Just a touch too sloppy... but I didn't realise this really until more of it had slopped onto the floor than got ont he wall, and then what had got on the wall was so finicky.

So I tore it and scraped it back off the wall... and despaired... I cleaned all my tools and then smoothed the little I had left around the window over... The inside of the window is now near perfect...

But I was determined to get something done... So I mixed again... this time when it was peaking I added another trowel full of powder... it looked way too thick... But... i got it on the wall... and I got it smooth...

This is the purple area, now its awkward the corner is shitty - because I'm so bad - and there's a lump in the wall just above the window, so I did from the lump down to the floor, around the window sill left... And I got it perfect, this little bit and this mix was by far my best so far...

With the ignimony of the first mix poured into a bag and disposed of (well its in the car ready to go to the tip) I was really happy to get at least this small slice of wall done... and so smooth, its really nice, I got it on, got it smooth, let it cure until tacky then I stroked water over it and polished it up, its really really nice.

Tonight therefore I have the same process to follow and its going to be in 3 steps, baby steps....

So, the first thing is a thicker mix above the bulge to fill the wall in.

Then another mix to go below the window sill smoothing it all out.

Whilst the second mix is curing, I can polish the first, and then whilst the second is curing I just wait.

Then polish the second and make sure I'm happy with all this.

Finally for tomorrow, its a bigger mix and I do the wall area number 3... it'll probably go right to the radiator as well.

This will be a clean up and then polish, and I really really need a thorough clean, there's plaster everywhere.

I need to scrub the skirtings and the windows.  This third area being done marks the end of my plastering before Xmas, because I've found a dodgy area of the walls which I need to check with the father-in-law about - I think the lathe behind it is rotten.

And I can get the desk up, now there are two very good reasons for putting the desk up, the first - the one I'm most excited about getting a look at - WarThunder patch 1.37 is out... with whole new progres model.

And then DayZ stand alone has his Steam - finally - as an open alpha for £20...

Man Lab - Plastering Progress 2 - Window sills

My woeful attempts to mix plaster continue, last night I thought it a good idea to mix just enough to go around the small window, so after fixing the beading I sorted out about a pint and a half of water... I poured in the plaster until it peaked over the top and began mixing - being so shallow I mixed by hand - then added another couple of trowel fulls of powder... but it never got just how I wanted it, it stayed on the trowel so I started to use it... And this time it did smooth out wonderfully and work beautifully once on the wall, but getting it on the wall was almost like catching smoke...

It was so soft and so wet it slopped all over and I don't have the technique of dexterity to get it on the wall in quick time.

But that said it was so soft and workable for so long I got time to work it around the window, smooth it and then apply some on the first wall I did to smooth its edge - not that I made a good job of this - but I got to repair the top left corner a junction not just between two walls but a sloping ceiling too, so it was awkward.

Tonight I intend to mix a half bucket up and do below the window up to the sill and then along the top.

This wall is the biggest challenge, because its not flat, the plaster area over the large wooden lintels bows out, it seems naturally to do this and is quite sound but this bow means to get my plaster straight I need to build up about 1/8th of an inch at the top border smoothing down to near zero about 2 inches above the window and then skim just the tiniest amount of plaster up to the window bead and then I need to plaster out against another 1/10th ish of an inch below the window down to the skirting.

Luckily the radiator is not coming off, so I just need to do the main bit of wall between the windows and then I can look at the other main wall... but with around the windows done I can also rope the father-in-law into actually helping fit shelves and the desk - he's got the power saws for it :)

Man Lab - Plastering Progress

So, I set about actually plastering... The first small wall was great, and I'm 90% happy with it... But the second wall, what a struggle... The mix had started to cure in the bucket within 10 minutes... I think either I did something wrong, or I'm unaware of quite how quick this stuff sets, but I had the first wall on and roughly smooth in about 15 minutes turned around and boom struggle, the second wall took ages to get the main bulk on, always getting heavier and harder to work until in the end I was resorting to patching little bits with finger fulls of very watered down plaster... literally running it with my fingered into the gaps and then floating the trowel over the top.

The biggest problems for both walls is the join between them, I get the impression plastering from the corner was a mistake, especially as it's an in-ward bend.  As I was smoothing one side, the pressure would push the other out, so that's lesson one, do one wall at a time.  Also plastering up to the skim bead was smoothest, so I'm going to put skim beads all around the windows without a doubt.

The next thing was smoothing it, I'm pretty sure at one point I smoothed really well, but then the next it was difficult, I need to learn from somewhere the skimming polishing technique a bit better, because I was expecting my trowel to be wet and then carry small amounts of plaster with it... But it didn't and it dug in, so my motion was sometimes right, sometimes wrong.

Another mistake I made was vibration, there are two or three distinct points in the plaster where I was under reaching (so not stretching out to far, I was pulling my trowel down and left past my own body too far) and the edge vibrated, this left ripples in the plaster which remain there now.

Finally, I masking taped the skirting, but plastered over the top of the tap, I should have taped 3mm away form the wall on the skirting.

All in all though, its better than what was there, its flat, it'll take a colour, and I've had my first experience.

My next job is to put the skim bead up around the windows, take down the blinds and plaster the inside of the window sils, this way they can be done when I come to do the whole rest of the main wall...

The skim beading around the small window and its plastering I may even do tonight.

I've clearly got to get quicker getting the stuff out the bucket and onto the wall, and I need to learn more about mixing it, because I mixed it as I'd seen in videos, so it was a thick cream which held a shape or peak... but it went off so quickly.

Either way, this is the first step to placing my desk and setting back up my gear, so I have to stuck with it.  I have to remember all the Full Real Battles in WarThunder I'll get once I'm done.

Manlab Progress - Sunday

Today was a case of just mixing 50/50 PVA and liberally applying it to all the holes in the wall...

The place looks like a small arms fight went off, you really start to appreciate how messy war is on your plaster walls when you come to remove a eight decades worth of rawl plugs and full their holes...

There's a good machine gun layer above the window where various curtain rails have been stuck up, cracking the plaster in the process... Then they even had those annoying hooks to hold the curtains back... There's of course the smaller window too, and it's got the top left corner totally missing, so I've built it back up in Bonding.

No big problems really, though my bonding mix was a little lumpy, so I have rough patches... But, I'm going to smooth the walls down with wet & dry anyway, so that'll get sorted.  I'll also get a chance to smooth the rebuilding by the second window too.

I suppose one thing which got me was that I had cleaned most all the holes out, even use the vacuum cleaner to remove the dust the moment the wet PVA hit the old plaster it oozed horrible mixes of dust and PVA, it looked for all the world like these many holes were bleeding ready brek.

Over the rest of the week I hope this bonding goes completely off, and I can clean up any drops on the skirting, mask the skirting, put up the skim bead and tape the inner corner... Then I might even try my hand at the skim coating plaster on the two minor walls...

Oh, and I'm going to have a nicer door fitted, going to get the father-in-law to hang it, maybe three for all three upstairs rooms, cus these doors are crap with a side order of WANK.

Man lab Progress - Saturday

I'm writing this post Saturday - well the wee hours of Sunday actually - just as a quick missive about the man lab, today I've spent like 3 hours stripping wall paper - and about the same time cleaning up - which thanks to a steamer machine was not as painful as previous plaster stripping endeavours were.  However, said wallpaper was covered in cheap emulsion paint... And the paper itself had a sort of plastic sheen... So the unless you scratched the paint and top surface off the paper was impervious...

But the heat from the steam would melt the paint, so there was this thick slick of pink shitty paint heading down the wall.

The walls which had the damp on them from the ingress of water however, when I steamed over them, they sort of bled black... Mould I assume, the plaster looked okay, just a little darker than other areas.. but the steam really bought out the spore I think.

The room smells a little funky right now, second hand... But I'm excited to prepare and try my hand at plastering... I may even get to try tomorrow on the two smaller walls...

Also, the walls were just utterly full of old rawl plugs... Like every other foot a plug... I'm down to 1920's plaster on lath backing, clean and paper free... removed three layers of paper, and this emulsion.

So, I have one large wall to fill and put the skim bead up on the corner, then there's two walls at 90 degree's to one another, which are the left and back of the alcove where the desk will be built in.  Then the main front wall, which has two window openings... Now that front wall needs so much bonding and smoothing, there are just dozens of bullet like wounds in the plaster going into the wooden window lintel.

The walls have had to be let to dry out and I've pulled all these plugs out, and I've cleaned up... So all the shreds of paper are out, the window sills are clean and the skirting board clean...

Tomorrow, which is today, which was Sunday... It'll be time to mix up bonding and patch all these walls, the main bonding area is going to be in the corner at the elbow 90degrees between the two small walls in the alcove, because that needs fixing after years of neglect.

Hopefully though, with the bonding on I can put the skim tape up in the corners, and then go get a second skim bead to cut to size and fit around the windows.

The only thing I'm thinking about now is how dry the walls are, they clearly sucked all the moisture out of the paper when it was hung, so I'm thinking PVA it.... And then PVA it again just before the plaster skim coat...?

On, and I'm NOT taking the radiator off, they seem to use a custom/rare tapping connector, and since changing the heating is not a priority, its staying as it is... But I have taken the inside curtain rail down, so both front windows are down to just cheap, see-through roller blinds.  I may not get much lie in...

Finally, if I do do the two smaller walls in plaster, I'm going to look at fixing/buying a floating corner shelf to hold the printer up there out of the way, that could get fitted when the plaster is set... Alternatively, it'll have to wait for the large front wall.

The wife wants me to delay plastering until xmas, but I'm not up for a delay, to be honest I think I got a LOT done today, tomorrow is the final prep, and then I'll maybe try to do one wall, and then next weekend do the rest.

In other news, I may at sometime over the next week get some very good news... Or some very bad news... work related... if its bad, expect me to vent, if its good I may not be able to tell anyone much, so I'll just code word it... lets agree the code word is... "Juggling"... so if I'm "Juggling things in the office"... You'll know its good, and I can tell you the good news probably after Valentines 2014... Yes it is that secret.

Manlab Progress

Man lab area update, the hole in the roof has been sorted, the roof lead fixed, the hole plugged with new board and its been bonded into place with a swathe of well... bonding...

The corner where the main desk will be has been stripped and is partially ready for plastering, but I need to next move the power supply, there is a dual plug precariously placed just down the wall from where the desk will be, so I'm going to chisel out a channel, run a new power cable from there and power it up... Or perhaps lift the floor boards (but this will be a pain) and check what cables go where.

I plan the sort the power, prepare the walls and then re-skim plaster (just an all in one coat which I'll polish) to make the corner flat and even, and the two main walls flat and then around the two windows flat... The ceiling is an unknown quantity, as I remove the paper off of the other walls I'm going to check the ceiling.

Either way, I'm going for flat painted walls, and for now leaving the build in cupboards and stuff - despite their being older than me - and I'm going to fix my desk to the wall as a permanent fixture with 2x1's and also float a shelf above the desk for the printer and paper to sit upon out the way.

The final thing might be to get a long drill bit and bring a dedicated network wire up from the hub in the front room, but that's a while away in the plans.

The other little job I still have yet to finish is wiring in the outside light, this thing was a pig to put up, because the kit it came with was basically so cheap (the whole thing cost a tenner) that it took my own rawl plugs and my own screws to actually fix it to the wall, because the kit supplied ones were so shite.